"Played for the champion New York Yankees in 1947 and the World Series-winning Cleveland Indians the next season."
That would be Allie Clark, whose career saw him play at third, in the outfield, and pinch hit. Clark had obtained a first: no player had won two consecutive World Championships with two different teams. And let's not try and act like Allie didn't contribute to both years.
On the Yankees in 1947 (and wearing #3, which was Babe Ruth's number), it was hard to fit in. You had the outfield of Joe DiMaggio. Flanking "The Yankee Clipper" was "Old Reliable" himself, Tommy Henrich, and "Jarrin' " Johnny Lindell. Lindell is easily the least rememberd of the trio, yet he batted .275 that season. Johnny led the American League in triples back in 1943 and '44.
The third baseman on New York was also pretty solid, Billy Johnson. "Bull" was limited to 132 games, yet drove in 95 runs and hit .285. Then there was a reserve who could play third base, Bobby Brown. Shouldn't Brown have been starting, given his .300 batting average? In any event, it appears that both Johnson and Brown had no intentions of being usurped from the hot corner.
Yet Allie Clark found ways to contribute. Although he appeared in just 24 games that season, he hit .373, and five bases on balls for a .404 on-base percentage. Though a small sample size to be sure, those numbers (which also included a fourteen RBIs) were enough that skipper Bucky Harris added him to the postseason roster.
And once in the postseason, Clark contributed. In game three of the World Series against Brooklyn, he walked and scored. He was retired in his only plate appearance of the sixth contest. Allie had done nothing more than pinch hit in those two appearances. And he still hadn't collected an RBI. Game seven would be different.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Yogi Berra was scheduled to hit with two on and two away. But Bucky Harris had other ideas. He sent up the right-handed hitting Allie Clark to bat against the left-handed pitcher, Joe Hatten. The home team was nursing a tight 3-2. Clark drove in a valuable insurance run with a single.
Clark stayed in the game, taking over in right field. In the top of the eighth, he recorded back-to-back putouts. The Yankees came out on top, 5-2.
It was Allie's last game with New York. During the offseason, Clark was traded to Cleveland for pitcher Red Embree. Embree had actually looked like a good pitcher in the years leading up to this transaction. Back in 1941, he was 21-5 with a 1.69 earned run average with the Eastern League's Wilkes-Barre Barons (Class A). That led to a cup of coffee with the Cleveland Indians late in the season. Six years later, the pitcher went only 8-10 with the Indians, but also posted an ERA of 3.10.
(If you are wondering what happened to the number three on the Yankees, let me explain. Cliff Mapes, and outfielder, took over with that number. Mapes played 53 games in 1948, and became the last player to wear it. It was retired after that season. Cliff would switch to number seven, which would later be made famous by Mickey Mantle.)
Neither Allie Clark nor Red played a full season with their new teams. Clark appeared in 81 games in 1948, hitting .310 with the Tribe. Embree helped the Bronx Bombers, who ended up with 94 wins that season. Although he appeared in just 21 games, Red went 5-3 with a fine earned run average of 3.76.
The Indians went with an outfield of Dale Mitchell in left and Larry Doby in centre. This is sort of where it gets confusing as to where "Who is playing in the outfield?" Allie Clark had actually started the first seven games of the season in left field, with Thurman Tucker in centre and Doby in right. As the season wore on, Doby was moved to centre. Hank Edwards ended up playing 41 games in right, and Doby was stationed at centre 68 times. Allie Clark got into 21 games in left field, and actually gave anyone who played two doors down a run for his money.
That's because four (count 'em) players on Cleveland appeared in at least 40 games in right field. Edwards was mentioned earlier, and here was his company:
Bobby Kennedy, Larry Doby, 48 appearances
Allie Clark, 44 appearances
The outfield was certainly a strong spot on this '48 team. But Ken Keltner was one awesome third baseman. 31 home runs. 119 RBIs. So it's no surprise that while Keltner was on the hot corner 153 times, Clark had to settle for a mere 5 appearances. The only other position Allie took up residence in that season was first base. And just one time.
Clark's numbers saw Cleveland finish in a tie with the Boston Red Sox for the flag. The one-game playoff at Fenway Park saw Allie go 0-2, but his team win, 8-3. New York finished in third place, a mere 2 1/2 games back. Perhaps keeping Clark might have made some difference.
In the Fall Classic against the other Boston team, the Indians prevailed in six contests over the Braves. Allie Clark started game two in right field, but the pitcher Boston pitcher he faced was a legend: Warren Spahn. The amazing left-handed hurler fanned Clark in their first encounter.
Allie grounded out in the third, and his club trailed 1-0 when the inning ended. But when the outfielder came back up in the top of the fifth, he had a chance to do something. Cleveland was now up 2-1 in this contest, which was played at Braves' Field. Sadly, this would be the second-last World Series game ever played at this particular ballpark. A scant four years' later, Boston would lose their National League franchise.
Dale Mitchell had gotten the inning going with a single. Clark got ahead 2-0 in the count on Spahn, who won fifteen games that season. I get it: you want that famous poem? How about instead I give you Spahn and Sain's numbers from that season:
Johnny Sain, 24-15, 2.60 ERA
Warren Spahn, 15-12, 3.71 ERA
You don't "...pray for rain," should you?
Why, there was Vern Bickford, who went 11-6 with a 3.27 earned run average. And then there was big tall Bill Voiselle. Voiselle, who wore #96 since he came from a town with that name, ended up 13-13 with a 3.63 ERA. There was simply, no need for rain. The Braves of 1948 had four quality starters, not two.
Where were we? Oh yes. Spahn's 2-0 pitch was bunted down the first-base line, where Earl Torgeson got it and threw Eddie Stanky for the putout. One out, and a man in scoring position. Dale Mitchell would score on Lou Boudreau's single. Spahn was removed in favour of Red Barrett.
The lead stayed 3-1, although both Clark and Boudreau (who was the player / manager of Cleveland that season) reached on errors in the seventh. Two on, two out for Joe Gordon. Gordon, himself an ex-Yankee who won the AL MVP six years earlier, grounded out to third baseman Bob Elliot.
Clark would be replaced in right with Bob Kennedy in the bottom of the eighth. The move by Boudreau worked out, and Kennedy drove in the last run of the ball game off Nels Potter. Allie Clark would not appear in this Fall Classic outside of this second contest. But for the second straight year, he got himself a ring.
Allie returned to Cleveland in 1949, but there would be not repeat. Clark himself hit just .176 in 35 games with the Tribe. He stayed with Cleveland until May of 1951, as Allie and Lou Klein were traded to the Philadelphia Athletics for Sam Chapman. Clark might have wished he was back with the Yankees, as they did the same thing in '49 that the Indians had done the previous season: New York finished in first place by the narrowest of margins over Boston. The Bronx Bombers 1948 season had been a blip on the radar. From 1947 to 1953, the Yankees won the pennant six times in seven seasons. Ironically, it would be the Tribe that broke the streak via 111 wins in 1954. Cleveland would have to wait until 1995 to win another flag. New York resumed their pennant-winning ways in '55. Allie's new team, Philadelphia, hadn't won a pennant since 1931.
And the A's weren't gonna be around Philly much longer. In fact, by 1954, they were playing their final season in Philadelphia, who would have to be content with the Phillies from here on in. But Allie would not be with the club for their 1955 move to Kansas City. He was placed on waivers in 1953, where the Chicago White Sox picked him up.
By this point, both Sam Chapman and Red Embree were no longer in the Majors. Chapman had last appeared in the bigs back in 1951. For his career, Sam hit 180 home runs. In '53, he was out west in the Pacific Coast League. With the Oakland Oaks, he connected for 22 four-baggers. Embree was last seen with the Toledo Mud Hens/Charleston Senators of the American Association, going 6-10 with an earned run average over 5.
Clark would play on. While he hit .274 with Philadelphia in '52, the bat was not good the next season. Although he got into 93 combined contest for the A's and White Sox, the batting average was .180. A month after arriving in Chicago, Allie Clark's contract was sold to the St. Louis Cardinals. His Major League career was over.
Allie could still hit in the high minors. His last MLB game was on June the 5th of 1953, so he spent the rest of the season with the Rochester Red Wings of the International League. Rochester was one of two top-level Minor League affiliates of the St. Louis Cardinals. The other Triple-A team for the Cardinals were the Columbus Red Birds of the American Association. It was a good thing that Clark ended up on the Red Wings. Rochester finished the year with 97 wins for first place. Columbus finished second last in their league with a record of 64-90.
Rochester went on to the Governor's Cup, essentially the International League's World Series. Alas, the Montreal Royals swept them in four straight. Allie Clark hit .328 that season with seven home runs in only eighty games played.
The next season saw Rochester win 86 games, which was good enough for a third-place finish. Clark hit 18 home runs. But if you want to know an interesting fact about Allie and the Red Wings that year, I got a story you have to hear.
On August 5th (1954), Rochester played a road game against the Ottawa Athletics. Actually, they played a twin bill. Clark played for Rochester, and my father was in attendance. Several notable names got into the contest, for good measure. Alas, I have to say that Allie was the second most notable for his own team, as Bill Virdon was in the outfield. Gary Blaylock was the starting pitcher for the Red Wings. John Mackinson opposed him on the Athletics. Héctor López was probably the best player my dad saw in that contest. In 1959, both Blaylock and López were in Yankee pinstripes. Virdon went on to face the Yankees in the World Series the next season.
That's maybe getting a little ahead. In 1955, Allie Clark put some excellent numbers together. He'd held out during the spring, feeling he deserved to be in the Majors. That didn't happen, obviously. Yet the old pro certainly deserved to be with the Cards. He fashioned an excllent season, batting over .300 and hitting 23 HR. The MVP of the International League was Allie Clark.
Allie Clark continued playing through 1958, then forged a career as an ironworker. Forty years later, he was inducted into the Red Wings Hall of Fame. When he appeared at a Yankee Old Timer's game in the 1990s, there was no way he could wear his old number. So, he took the number that had belonged to long time third base coach Frank Crosetti, 2. Clark pretty much stayed in South Amboy after his playing career, the same city in which he'd been born back in 1923. Much of his work was seen around town. He even ended up on the city council. Allie died in 2012.
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